Nottingham chosen for racing-mad Leicester City owner’s first runner since his death

SPORTS REPORTER

A minute’s silence will be held at Nottingham Racecourse on Wednesday when the colours of Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha will be carried on a horse for the first time since his death in a helicopter tragedy.

The two-year-old colt, Fox Fearless, has been declared to run by King Power Racing, an owners’ operation that was spearheaded by 60-year-old Thai businessman Srivaddhanaprabha.

Trained by Ralph Beckett, Fox Fearless will be ridden by James Doyle in the B&M Installations Nursery Handicap at 1.40 pm on what is the racecourse’s final fixture of the Flat season. He faces 11 rivals and is the second highest rated horse in the one-and-a-quarter mile contest.

Srivaddhanaprabha, who was also Leicester City’s chairman, was a huge supporter of British racing and invested in more than 60 horses in training.

King Power Racing had one runner in the USA on Friday when Well Done Fox ran in the Breeders’ Cup in Kentucky, but Fox Fearless is their first to compete in the UK since the helicopter crash, which killed five people in all.

Wednesday’s fixture brings the curtain come down on Colwick Park’s year and the feature race is the £25,000 Lady Cecil Handicap, named after the widow of the late trainer, Sir Henry Cecil.

The racecourse’s trainers’ championship for 2018 will also be decided on Wednesday, with Richard Hannon, Mark Johnston, Karl Burke and Richard Fahey all in contention.